F67: Failure of Success Criterion 1.1.1 and 1.2.1 due to providing long descriptions for non-text content that does not serve the same purpose or does not present the same information

Important Information about Techniques

See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.

Description

The objective of this technique is to describe the failure that occurs when the long description for non-text content does not serve the same purpose or does not present the same information as the non-text content. This can cause problems for people who cannot interpret the non-text content because they rely on the long description to provide the necessary information conveyed by the non-text content. Without a long description that provides complete information, a person may not be able to comprehend or interact with the Web page.

Examples

An image showing the locations of venues for events at the Olympic Games displayed on a street map. The image also contains an icon for each type of sporting event held at each venue. The long description states, "Map showing the location of each Olympic venue. Skating, hockey and curling are held at the Winter Park Ice Arena, Downhill skiing and jumping are held at Snow Mountain, Gymnastics is held at the JumpUp Arena, Cross Country Skiing is held at the Kilometer Forest". While this description provides useful information, it does not convey the same information as the image because it provides no specific location information such as the address or the distance of each location from some fixed point. Note that long descriptions do not always need to be in prose form; sometimes the information may best be presented in a table or other alternate format.